Environmental rules and rule-making in the European Union
By: WEALE, Albert
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ArticlePublisher: London : Routledge, December 1996Journal of European Public Policy 3, 4, p. 594-611Abstract: What does environmental policy-making reveal about the rule-making process in the European Union? In the light of environmental policy developments, this article proposes that the EU be regarded as a system of governance operating on the principle of concurrent majorities among leading actors. European environmental standards are neither functionally related to the Single Market nor a reflection of a dominant coalition of countries pushing their own national style of regulation nor even a merry-go-round in which different countries have a go at imposing their own national style in a sector that is of particular importance to them. Instead, they are the aggregated and transformed standards of their original champions modified under the need to secure political accommodation from powerful actors within the structure of decision-making in which veto power is widely distributed. Some pathologies of this decision structure are also indicated.
What does environmental policy-making reveal about the rule-making process in the European Union? In the light of environmental policy developments, this article proposes that the EU be regarded as a system of governance operating on the principle of concurrent majorities among leading actors. European environmental standards are neither functionally related to the Single Market nor a reflection of a dominant coalition of countries pushing their own national style of regulation nor even a merry-go-round in which different countries have a go at imposing their own national style in a sector that is of particular importance to them. Instead, they are the aggregated and transformed standards of their original champions modified under the need to secure political accommodation from powerful actors within the structure of decision-making in which veto power is widely distributed. Some pathologies of this decision structure are also indicated.
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